My One True Friend – Tristan Bates Theatre, London

Racism and reconciliation are at the heart of My One True Friend receiving its world premiere at Tristan Bates Theatre – but despite the serious message it all feels somewhat insubstantial.

Set in Rhodesia in the late 1970s Alexander Matthews’ play uses sumptuous poetic language and boasts some fine performances – but you can’t help feeling short-changed in a 70-minutepiece that never quite takes off or says anything original.

The premise is promising: a white English widow about to celebrate her 60thbirthday in Rhodesia visited by family more interested in financial gain and with a loyal black servant of 25 years who seems more devoted to her than to his own family.

There’s a whiff of Tennessee Williams about it all, with a snobbish Southern belle-like female character hiding deep-felt insecurities. There are even insects chirruping constantly outside the house – a staple part of the Williams dramatic soundscape. But also out there are trigger-happy white law enforcers instilling fear into the black population.

Given the setting one might expect some reference to multiracial democracy and the political power shifts in the country post 1979 but this is mysteriously absent in this slow burner, save for the son’s constant chatter about an approaching Armageddon and nuclear holocaust, which appears to be more linked to the nuclear crisis of the early 1980s than acting as a metaphor.

Suzanna Hamilton plays cantankerous Lady L with a permanent bristle, but this is how the character is written and it makes it hard for the audience to have any sympathy or liking for her, even when lumbered with an awkward soliloquy in the final third.

Her awakening epiphany at the end seems more a result of annoyance that nobody has come to her birthday party than a genuine appreciation of the servant who she has treated no better than a slave for a quarter of a century. In itself it’s a good performance, but the objectionable bullying landowner deserves no pity or redemption in spite of Hamilton’s fervour.

Mensah Bediako’s Kapenie exudes a quiet faith and confidence and is undoubtedly the best drawn and most satisfactory character in the play. Whereas the others are largely one-dimensional, Bediako paints a portrait of someone with strong personal beliefs and a genuine desire and willingness to serve an employer who has treated him abominably. It’s hard to understand the smiles and laughter both characters finish with when “madame” continues to behave unpleasantly, but Bediako succeeds in making us care.

Theo Bamber and Lucy Lowe try hard to make their characters interesting, providing most of the little humour in the play. The son and daughter clearly feel they deserve something from their late father’s estate, caring nothing about a mother who, left on her own in a changing land, is like a fish out of water. But the two very watchable performers are unable to venture far given the script’s limited progression.

Joseph Rowe is also forceful in his role as Kapenie’s grandson, unable to understand why his grandfather is so wedded to injustice, but the text reduces him to long speeches about looking at things from a fresh perspective.

The quality performances and atmospheric direction by Antony Law are insufficient to make the play itself engaging. There are so many things on the periphery that never develop and frustratingly dissolve without the chance to expand. It is never clear if the threat from the men outside (heard but not seen) has a deep political resonance, intending to portray brutal and racist police or is simply a crowd of drunken troublemakers. Lady L’s background is never spelt out, so we have no understanding of why a woman from Margate has ended up in a country on the brink of such important change.

Adrian Gee’s design creates a set that has the feel of a home from home, but it has to function as the houses of both employer and servant, so the important separation of the two families is lost.

It’s all as scratchy as the old records Lady L plays with a nostalgic pining that rarely creates any meaningful drama. The writer says in an introduction in the programme that tolerance is a key theme in the play, yet for all its poetry and good intentions it skates around the darker realities of life in the Rhodesia of this period and ends up lacking clarity signifying nothing.

Runs until September 14 2019 | Image: Mark Senior

My One True Friend – Tristan Bates Theatre, London

Writers: Alexander Matthews Director: Antony Law Reviewer: David Guest Racism and reconciliation are at the heart of My One True Friend receiving its world premiere at Tristan Bates Theatre – but despite the serious message it all feels somewhat insubstantial. Set in Rhodesia in the late 1970s Alexander Matthews’ play uses sumptuous poetic language and boasts some fine performances – but you can’t help feeling short-changed in a 70-minutepiece that never quite takes off or says anything original. The premise is promising: a white English widow about to celebrate her 60thbirthday in Rhodesia visited by family more interested in financial gain&hellip;